The Lancaster MP put plans to see an Oscar-winning actor’s new sex change film on hold to talk about the Labour shadow cabinet reshuffle on TV.

Cat Smith appeared on Newsnight after tweeting that she’d had to cancel a trip to see The Danish Girl .

Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl.

Cat tweeted: “Wanted to go to the cinema tonight to see The Danish Girl. Change of plans as I head to the BBC Newsnight studio.”

The MP, Labour shadow minister for women and equalities, then got a tweet from the University of Cumbria drama students’ twitter account.

They asked Cat if she’d come and watch them perform the play ‘Hedda’ at the Dukes next week “to make up for it”. Ms Smith replied: “Email me the details, I’d love that.”

The Danish Girl, currently showing at the Vue and Dukes cinemas in Lancaster, stars Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne as Einar Wegener, a Danish landscape artist who became one of the first recipients of gender reassignment surgery from man to woman.

On Newsnight on Monday, Cat spoke to presenter Evan Davis about the number of women in top roles in the Labour party in the week of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet reshuffle.

“I think it’s right that we ask all our politicians what they are doing to promote gender equality in the party,” said the MP, who is a strong supporter of Mr Corbyn.

“Jeremy Corbyn has set the standard by having a shadow cabinet that’s more than 50% made out of women, when the rest of the party has some way to go. Society has a problem promoting women into positions of responsibility.”

Meanwhile three members of the shadow cabinet have resigned in the wake of the reshuffle. Kevan Jones, shadow minister for the armed forces, Jonathan Reynolds, shadow railways minister and Stephen Doughty, shadow foreign minister, have all quit. Mr Reynolds and Mr Doughty were unhappy that Pat McFadden, shadow Europe secretary, was sacked for saying the West was not to blame for the recent Paris terrorist attacks. Mr Jones resigned saying he did not agree with Mr Corbyn’s stance on unilateral nuclear disarmament.